Guenther Steiner’s alternate Daniel Ricciardo decline theory as F1 exit confirmed

Guenther Steiner suggests having a team-mate that could beat him perhaps “mentally” hurt Daniel Ricciardo, in the same way he “killed” Nico Hulkenberg’s career at Renault.

The intense speculation surrounding Ricciardo has become a reality with the eight-time grand prix winner’s immediate exit from Red Bull junior team VCARB confirmed following the Singapore Grand Prix, where Ricciardo made his 257th and perhaps final F1 start.

Did having a strong team-mate ‘mentally’ hurt Daniel Ricciardo?

It was with the Red Bull second team that Ricciardo made his return to the F1 grid, having been outperformed by Lando Norris in a disastrous McLaren spell which saw Ricciardo’s contract cancelled a year early. The Aussie had set his sights on a Red Bull comeback via impressing at VCARB but was required to comfortably beat team-mate Yuki Tsunoda to achieve that, which he could not.

Scoring 12 points to Tsunoda’s 22 so far in F1 2024 , Red Bull has opted to replace Ricciardo with Liam Lawson for the rest of the season.

And while appearing on the Red Flags podcast , it was put to Steiner that Ricciardo’s struggles, which began at McLaren, could perhaps be put down to the car not suiting him compared to the Renault and Red Bull before that?

However, on the subject of Renault, Steiner theorised that Ricciardo’s decline could come down to the strength of his team-mate, claiming the reverse was true in Ricciardo’s first Renault season as team-mate to Nico Hulkenberg, Steiner arguing that he “killed” the German’s career at that stage.

“Having a team-mate which beats him, maybe did that mentally to him,” said Steiner.

“It’s like Hulkenberg, When he was at Renault with Danny, he suffered a lot. I mean, he almost finished his career, or Danny almost, let’s say it killed Hulkenberg’s career at the time.

“But now look at Hulkenberg. He runs circles around Danny. It’s weird how sometimes these things happen.”

Where did it all go wrong for Daniel Ricciardo?

👉 Time runs out on Daniel Ricciardo’s fairytale Red Bull F1 finale

👉 What happened to Daniel Ricciardo? The compelling theories to explain his sharp F1 decline

In addition, Steiner believes that the pressure weighed on Ricciardo, having struggled to impress against Norris, a trend which continued into VCARB with Tsunoda on the other side of the garage.

“I think because it’s a sport so much on the edge that every little… If you’re mentally, you’re not above it, and obviously the pressure, which got to Danny as well,” Steiner continued.

“Everybody was watching him, ‘Oh, is Danny being okay? Is Danny good, is he bad?’ And maybe he wasn’t prepared for that and just couldn’t deal with it.

“So I think he hasn’t unlearned to drive a race car. It’s just like he’s not in a good space with his head.”

PlanetF1.com understands that the door has been left ajar for Ricciardo to remain in the Red Bull Racing pool, but that is his decision to make.

Read next: Helmut Marko’s Daniel Ricciardo ‘lost killer instinct’ verdict as F1 exit confirmed